Freshman Domenico Del Prete earned the final Northwest Conference Men’s Soccer Offensive Student-Athlete of the Week honor of the season, as announced Tuesday, in recognition of his goal scoring performances this past week.

Del Prete scored his first career hat trick in last weekend’s season finale against Willamette, recording all of the Wildcats’ goals in a close 4-3 loss to the rival Bearcats.

The former all-Pacific 8 player at Tualatin High School has excelled on an even bigger stage at Linfield. Del Prete was the team’s leading offensive player this year with 10 goals and three assists. He led the Northwest Conference in goals, finished tied for second in the league for total points (23) and became the first Wildcat to reach double digits in the goals column since Mike Grabast scored 10 times in 2006.

This was the first career weekly conference honor for Del Prete, and the second for a Linfield player this year. Teammate Jake Baker (Sr., McMinnville, Ore.) won the award in October.

As a team, the Wildcats more than tripled last season’s win total to finish the season with a 5-9 conference record, 7-11 overall. With Del Prete leading the way – scoring more goals than the entire team did in 2011 – Linfield also significantly raised its offensive production, tallying 29 goals, the highest total since the 2007 season.